“Characters come from a melting pot in your mind…”
Martin Stewart
When Allan Gaw was nominated for the 2024 Bloody Scotland prize for the best Scottish crime debut of the year, he thought he’d peaked. Instead, he won the award, secured a new publishing deal, and his novel, The Silent House of Sleep, was not only Waterstones’ Scottish Book of the Month for January – it was the bestselling Scottish book in the country.
“The Book of the Month listing was an absolute gift,” says Gaw, speaking from his home in the central belt. “I think every writer remembers the first time they see their book in a bookshop, but to visit so many stores and find that you’ve got a whole table – or a window display – to yourself was just off the scale.”
Gaw’s success is all the more remarkable given that he had self-published The Silent House of Sleep.
“After a while you wonder if it’s all worth it,” he says, reflecting on years of frustration trying to find a traditional publisher. “But then I thought, ‘no – I believe in my work, and I want it out there.’ I couldn’t wait around for the world to discover if it’s any good. There are still some negative feelings around self-publishing, but I was proud to do it.”
The Bloody Scotland award brought new levels of attention and opened new doors. When he was approached by a major publisher, Polygon, he realised that this was an opportunity to secure “the support of a bigger organisation to get my work out there. I signed with them in November, and they put out the first book on the second of January – it’s been a bit of a whirlwind for everybody!”
The book is set in the inter-war period of the 1930s, and features Gaw’s engaging protagonist, Dr Jack Cuthbert. A pathologist from Edinburgh, Cuthbert’s work brings him into the orbit of Scotland Yard and its complex, intricate cases. He is a remarkable and fascinating character, and the central driver of Gaw’s writing.
“I really didn’t set out to write a crime novel,” he says. “I wanted to create an interesting character, somebody who I wanted to spend time with, and I wanted to place him in a world where I could watch him change and develop, because he was a pathologist. Inevitably, this meant describing his work, which in turn meant a murder he could investigate that would allow us to see his pathological expertise. And, of course, if you have murders, you get policeman, and before you know it, you’re in a crime procedural!”
Born and raised in Glasgow, Gaw shares Cuthbert’s profession. Now retired, he was himself a pathologist, with a rich and varied career.
“I did the usual junior doct
“I did the usual junior doctor jobs, and then decided I wanted to specialise in pathology; but it was quickly obvious to me that an awful lot of it was very routine. I wanted to discover things and make a difference, so I took a sideways step, completed a PhD, then went to work in a lab in Dallas, Texas, which had just won the Nobel Prize. That was an eye-opening experience – they used to have their Nobel Prizes hanging on the wall to remind you of the standards! After a couple of years, I came back to Glasgow and became interested in teaching – in training new pathologists.”
Gaw is fascinating on the subject of his protagonist. Cuthbert, he says, “is a fusion of many people I’ve met over the years, not just the pathologists. Characters come from a melting pot in your mind – they’re created by joining all the dots you’ve collected over the years, with which you create a new picture. Jack is exceptional in so many ways: he’s the tallest, smartest, best-looking person in every room, all of which has its benefits and drawbacks, and he realises how potentially intimidating he is. He’s constantly trying to position himself in conversation with other men to manage their expectations of him.”
Cuthbert is a man of his time. Even his demons are period-specific, and the novel’s evocative historical setting adds to the sense of intrigue – and jeopardy.
“I wanted to give him challenges that were tied to the world he was living in. Like many men of his generation, he lived through the horrors of the First World War, and his very closeted homosexuality – then, of course, a criminal offence – is a huge problem for him, so much so that he’s really not come to terms with his own sexuality.”
The research required to authentically bring the 1930s to life was a golden opportunity for a writer with Gaw’s expertise. Not only did he read the textbooks Cuthbert would have used during his training in the 1920s, he accessed the archives of Saint George’s Hospital in London, which has digitised every one of its post mortem reports from the last 300 years.
“I had a wonderful time running through those,” he says. “They meant I could understand not only Cuthbert’s access to knowledge and terminology, I could get an insight into the prevailing attitudes and approaches to the subject at the time. Ultimately all pathology is about observation – about using your eyes before you do anything else.”
The Silent House of Sleep will be followed by three more Jack Cuthbert mysteries in 2025. With book two, The Moon’s More Feeble Fire, launching this spring, what’s next for Dr Jack?
“We’re going to explore his backstory. In the first book, we hint at his childhood, and the apparent absence of his family. As his story progresses, we’ll find out a lot about his formative years, why he loves Latin poetry, how he became the man he is. We’ll see him building the relationship with his assistant, as he grows and matures alongside Jack, and we’ll see the developing relationship with his housekeeper.”
And more complex, criminal cases to crack?
“There are crimes to investigate, of course, but the characters come first. When I talk to readers, they tell me that they’ve enjoyed the crimes, and the obstacles that Jack’s overcome, but they really value the challenges that have nothing to do with his forensic life.”
Far from having peaked with his award nomination, Allan Gaw is just getting started.
The Silent House of Sleep is available to purchase from Amazon, Waterstones and other good book shops. Its sequel, The Moon’s More Feeble Fire, will be published by Polygon on 3rd April.
